It is an axiom of American politics that Americans reject a public health care option. Rhetoric to the contrary: 49.6 percent of the American people get their health care paid for by a government-run insurance program. The dictionary definition of a public option! Instead of railing against it -- why not seize the opportunity?

The Veterans Administration Health Care System is terminally ill. It is afflicted, House VA Committee Chair, Jeff Miller, says with a "culture of corruption, lying and cheating".
Chairman Miller believes the culture problem is so severe "no amount of legislation can fix it".
The culture is a cancer on the organization –metastasized or worse. It requires immediate and radical organizational disruption – analogous to surgery and corporate chemo plus radiation!
It is time to clean house at VA Health Care

VA Health System began as the fulfillment of a moral guarantee made to American veterans since Revolutionary War to care for them when they could not care for themselves.
Fast forward a century. There is a strong social safety net - Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, Social Security Disability, Social Security Retirement, Food Stamps and Unemployment Insurance - available to all Americans.
The vast majority of our veterans are citizen soldiers. Why not consider integrating rather than duplicating these programs?